The Peshawar High Court accepted a petition from Mohammad's sons – Rizwanullah, Hayatullah, and Ziaullah – challenging their detention.
It granted bail to them and ordered that they should be released from prison if no other cases were pending against them. The court noted that the government of the North West Frontier Province had not given 'sufficient proof' of the three men's involvement in acts of terrorism.
The three men were arrested along with their father, the head of the banned Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariah Mohammadi, from their residence in Peshawar on July 22. They were later sent to prison under the provision of the Maintenance of Public Order law, which allows people to be detained without charges being filed against them.
Police in Swat have booked Sufi Mohammad under the Anti-Terrorism Act and other laws for his links with Taliban fighters led by his son-in-law Maulana Fazlullah. He has also been charged with treason.
Published 26 August 2009, 09:27 IST